AAPG student chapter program began modestly enough – more modestly and probably in fewer numbers than you think… It is a history that began in 1978 and has since grown to more than 320 institutions in more than 40 countries – and thanks in part to the AAPG/AAPG Foundation’s Imperial Barrel Award, it’s also a history that now stretches around the world.

Emphasis: Unconventional Resources

This year, URTeC has added an enhanced preview of “Coming Attractions.” In addition to looking at established plays, URTeC will provide significant information about emerging unconventional resource possibilities in North America and around the world.

The current, free-flowing supply of hydrocarbons has brought a sigh of relief to many who have been scrambling to find alternatives to dwindling supplies of conventional fossil fuels. But while some estimate the shale energy boom has handed the nation at least four decades of energy security, this is not a time to rest easy, said past AAPG president Scott Tinker, the director of the Bureau of Economic Geology and state geologist of Texas

Given all the success stories, it’s intriguing to realize these plays are still far from being a known – variability is indigenous. The players talk about “cracking the code,” but the “code” can differ even between adjacent wells.

The “Converting Technology Into Dollars” panel will explore how top-tier organizations lead the way by rapidly improving and deploying unconventional resource technologies and incorporating new learnings across their organizations.

Hydraulic fracturing has become so widely used, principally in shale well completions, the casual observer might be inclined to think it’s not only commonplace but a standard, one-size-fits-all technology application. Not so.

At the start of the now-phenomenal shale play bonanza, the thinking in general was that the rocks were homogeneous across an area of interest. Then reality set in as the shale E&P players came to realize via the drill bit that heterogeneity rules, and homogeneity and uniformity are not even bit players in the big picture.

Shell worked to establish trust with the community, hiring a local non-governmental organization to help farmers commercialize products, and building houses in the village so farmers could sell them. In the end, Shell acquired the seismic, and made a sustainable social investment in the community that lasted beyond the time of acquisition.